(During our busiest season of the year at the studio I manage, I faint – and when being treated at the hospital, find out to my surprise and delight that I am pregnant. At that point, my husband and I have been trying for almost three years. However, I am quite ill, and suspect I am having a miscarriage. After a week of daily blood draws, I get the bad news on a Friday evening — it is confirmed that the pregnancy is not viable. I immediately called my district manager to let her know I can’t work that weekend.)

Me: “I just got a call from my doctor, and I am having a miscarriage. I’m closing the studio tonight, and won’t be in to work at all tomorrow.”

District Manager: “You can’t do that! It’s Christmas season, and every employee is required to be present at all scheduled shifts. I’m not authorizing any time off for anyone no matter what the reason! Everyone in this company is working every day we’re open!”

Me: “Did you not hear what I said? I’ve just found out that the baby I’ve been dreaming of having for years is dead. I’m not dealing well with that, I’m physically ill, and I won’t be in to work tomorrow. My staff can handle the scheduled photo shoots.”

District Manager: “You WILL be in to work tomorrow or you will NOT have a job.”

Me: “Whatever. I’ll be in if I can.”

(I go home, and spend the night and the next morning doubled over, sobbing, and going through the physical pain of a miscarriage. I finally manage to get myself to work around noon, since it really is a busy season and I know that my staff need the backup. I walk in, holding myself together. My employee hugs me and says, “I don’t even want you to see this but you need to” and hands me a fax from the DM.)

District Manager: “I’m so excited! I closed on my dream house, and I’m taking the next 10 days off to move. Nobody call me! :D”

(Oddly enough, I was then unmotivated to continue in that company’s employ. Not too long after, I went to work for their direct competitor, and brought all of my clients with me!)

(Our night person recently quit, and we had to hire someone to replace him on short notice. He’s not a bad worker, but he was only given two shifts of training before being put on nights alone. As such, he doesn’t know the items on the register, has tried to sell baking materials to customers [the stuff we need to make our baked goods and is NEVER for sale], and has been painfully slow. It is Canada Day weekend, the biggest weekend of the year for business.)

Me: “Hey, [Supervisor], I just checked the schedule, and the only person working after 11 pm is the night person.”

Supervisor: “Are you kidding me? They only scheduled ONE PERSON for Canada Day!?”

Me: “Looks that way.”

Supervisor: “I’m going to go into the back and cry.”

(When stuff like this happens it usually means the supervisors are obligated to stay for hours after their shift to help without any warning. My supervisor calls up my boss.)

Supervisor: “Hey, I just checked the schedule and only the night person is scheduled tonight. You didn’t re-allocate an afternoon person to help him?”

Boss: “Nope! He should be fine!”

Supervisor: “Every day these past few weekends we’ve been lined up out the door from morning until two am. This night person has no idea what he’s doing, and he’s been stressing out because he’s having to deal with a full line up of customers, drive-thru, and making sandwiches all by himself, as well as doing all of his nightly cleaning duties and prep-work. We’ve been forced to stay for hours after our shifts have ended to help him, because otherwise he’d get nothing done. And tonight, the busiest night of the year, he’ll be dealing with a full line up of customers all night. He won’t get anything done…”

Boss: “Oh… well, it’s not your job to stay there!”

Supervisor: “You told us that it is.”

Boss: “Well, it’s not! Go home when your shift ends! And nobody else can stay to help him either!”

(My supervisor decided to do what my boss says, because otherwise he’d be stuck there until two am. My supervisor and I clocked out and stood outside as the store filled with customers, drive-thru was packed to the brim, and droves of customers were leaving angry because the one person working the entire store wasn’t going fast enough. The next weekend my boss asked the supervisors to stay late to help out again… and the night shift person quit two weeks later.)

(This happens after I have been working at my new job for less than a month. It is Halloween, and I am working quietly at my desk when I suddenly hear someone come up behind me. Turning around, I see a very tall person dressed as the Grim Reaper.)

Me:*thinking* “This must be a company Halloween tradition that no one told me about.”

Grim Reaper:*silently holds out bowl of candy*

Me: “Thank you!” *takes piece of candy*

Grim Reaper:*leaves*

(About an hour later, I heard some of my coworkers talking about him.)

Coworker #1: “That was so weird! Any idea who that was?”

Coworker #2: “Not a clue.”

Me: “You don’t know who that was either? I thought this happened every year!”